Ghosts, Bootleggers and Communicating with the Dead

Most recently she's discovered a program called Access. I'm not going into the nuts and bolts of it right now is but suffice it to say it blows your mind.

Literally. Access allows you to expand your awareness exponentially and do some pretty amazing things.

My sister in law graciously offered to practice some Access on me by way of SOP sessions - Symphony of Possibilities. If you're really curious, look it up.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because yes, once again I get to tell a really cool story about my writing and my books. Plus, you get to hear about my otherworldly PR agency.

Do you remember how at the end of Sixth Sense, you find out that the Bruce Willis character who counsels the boy throughout the whole movie turns out to be a ghost? And it's totally spooky, sad and terrifying at the same time?

Well Access says, "Yup, we see dead people. All the time. They're called entities. The question is, are you going to let them scare the crap out of you or are you going to put them to work?"

Still with me?

When I got on the phone for the last session, my sister-in-law was driving down the coast south of San Francisco trying to find a place to park. She called me back and told me that something was telling her to keep driving and she decided to follow the energy to see where it took her.

She got pulled to this restaurant in Half Moon Bay called Moss Beach Distillery because she got the awareness that there were entities who wanted to help me write my books and there was something special about the energy of the restaurant that would contribute to my session. She said that these entities are called my "teammates" and her advice was that I call on them for help and guidance.

I thought it was an interesting idea but honestly I didn't know what to make of it or if I quite believed in it.

I was pretty sure there were powers out there at work in the world that I can't see but I was less convinced that there was a group of them specifically dedicated to me and my goals.

So during the session, I invited my "spiritual teammates" to come in but I didn't expect an answer.

I went back to writing my second book, "Darkness of the Spirit" and didn't give this any more thought.

Four weeks later, my sister-in-law came down for the holidays and over dinner we started talking about the SOP sessions and my teammates. She said, "I forgot to tell you but that restaurant I stopped at has a history. During Prohibition it was a bootleggers' den and the legend is it's haunted."

My ears perked up. Bootleggers and ghosts are right up my alley so I immediately got online and looked this place up.

It turns out the place used to have a different name. Back then it was called Frank's Place and it was the setting for one of Dashiell Hammett's famous Continental Op stories. The place was a smugglers' point for bootleggers and it was also a speakeasy during Prohibition. What floored me was that the last name of the owner of the speakeasy was Torres.

This is the last name of my dead, Kennedy-wig wearing politician from scene one of "One Death at a Time". He's the oldest son of the brutal First Kingdom Torres clan which you'll be hearing a lot more of in Book Two.

That's a crazy enough coincidence. But it got even weirder. The ghost that haunts this restaurant is known as the Blue Lady. She was killed by her husband for cheating on him and she still haunts the place she would go to meet her lover.

In "One Death", Jack falls in love with Carla Krakos, a beautiful, lost madame and crystal rose addict caught in the middle of a supernatural war. Jack has one passionate night with her before her husband has her killed.

When Jack first meets her, he calls her "Mrs. Krakos" and she says, "My friends call me Blue."

Just like at the end of Sixth Sense, it was a spooky, crazy gut punch twist. My wife and I freaked out.

My sister-in-law took it in stride. She said, "What did I tell you? They really want to help you. And this is what it took to get through to you."

So all right, message received guys. I'm listening. Let's get to work.